Before Dino Rossi got onstage for his "victory speech," three young pimply men in the crowd discussed the evening's soundtrack: Vampire Weekend, MGMT, and Lynyrd Skynyrd. While the MGMT song "Kids" was playing, the shortest and pimpliest of the three said, "I hate how all these songs get really popular five months after I listen to them." The tallest and least pimply of them said, "You should become a music scout or something. Start a blog. That's how it happens." "I should, I really should," the short one responded. "What do you listen to?" His friend's response: "Reggae."

Rossi's speech didn't mention his numbers, which had fallen from 37 percent to 33 percent in the preceding ten minutes. He basically gave a stump speech about how Washington needs "adult supervision" (pandering to the oldies!) and how the ideas of Senator Murray "don't work." He flattered the American people but failed to explain why such noble voters have kept Murray in office for the past 18 years. After his speech, a woman next to me, who was in Rossi's high school class, said he looked very different in high school, when he had shaggy hair and flared jeans. "He looked nothing like the man he is today."

Was he a jock, a nerd, a debate-club dude? "No," she said, "He was just a dude."